Reply to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
OP here. Usually wien I don’t like a book other people like, I can at least understand the appeal, even when I do t feel it. Help me understand the deep feelings you had for these characters. SPOILER ALERT

Sam stopped talking to Sadie for years over the service hours thing. Ok, he’s a kid who just lost his mom, so I understand his overreaction.  But when Sadie discovers that Sam may have known about the relationship with the professor when he asked her to get Dov’s help and instead of talking to him about it, she attributes all these terrible motives to him, that he’s stealing all the credit, and she estranged herself from him for years — what kind of great friendship was that? She treated him terribly. And what’s with the relationship with the weirdo professor who totally took advantage of her when she was a student; he was teetering right on the edge of abuse.  But *him* she manages to stay friends with? Really? Then all of a sudden Sam is devastated that she’s with someone else; I thought he was asexual! Zevin never described any kind of romantic or sexual interest there. Where did that come from? And the way she rebuffed his friendship over and over after their friend died (can’t think of his name, but he, Sam’s mom and the grandfather were the only characters I liked). When she was finally willing to talk to him after the grandfather died, there he was, still chasing the crumbs of attention she deigned to give him and then bam, book’s over.[/quote]

Keep in mind I'm the PP with the flowery language you (or another poster?) didn't like...

To me, your own paragraph explains the appeal of the characters. They're raw, they're complicated, they're human.  I read a strong reaction out of you re: Sadie and her professor.  You yourself are saying, WTF Sadie?  That's what I mean when I say these characters made me feel deeply.  I questioned them, didn't understand them, felt sorry for them and got frustrated with their choices. Loving this book didn't mean I loved the characters and all they did or didn't do. It just means I loved that I cared so much about them.

So many books I read lately I can barely pay attention to the storyline because I'm not engaged with the characters.  This book was the opposite experience. [/quote]

You were responding to me (I'm fine with flowery language, that wasn't me). I think I'm similar to you in that my assessment of books is very character-driven. However, I hate books with no likeable characters, and as I mentioned, the only characters I liked were the more tangential characters that died. I didn't like Sadie because she was so mean to Sam for no reason. I wanted to like Sam; I agree with the pp who said building that world was a wonderfully loving gesture. I had a lot more empathy for him and his issues because of his mom. I just got frustrated with him because he was so passive with Sadie and let her treat him so poorly without responding.  Also, it wasn't clear to me that his love for Sadie was romantic until she ended up with the other guy. Before that, I was thinking it was a nonromantic but deep love, but then he turned out to be so jealous. I dunno; these characters just didn't touch me. But I understand a lot better why others liked it, and I see that I'm in the clear minority. On the other hand, I really loved the characters in A.J. Fikry. [/quote]

I totally got why Sadie was mean to Sam. Sam was f * cking  annoying sometimes! Huge victim mindset but also arrogant and domineering. Very believable that he would drive people crazy even as they admitted he was brilliant. Sadie wasn’t dissimilar though - I equally understood why Sam got frustrated with HER. Her incessant need for credit and the way she withdrew was also irritating. I think the success of the story is that neither of these characters are inherently likable, but we cared about them both in different ways and empathized when they were annoyed with one another. Making the most likable and amiable character the NPC was clever. The most dynamic and captivating people in real life are rarely the genuinely good and likable ones. [/quote]

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